Sliced meat, cheese, and other food products are often stored in packaging prior to consumption. Food products are often enclosed in sealed, rigid packaging. The packaging may be reclosable depending on the quantity of food product. The same package that stores the food product can also be difficult for a consumer to open. For example, one type of rigid package includes a base with a food storage compartment and a lid for closing the compartment. The periphery of the base has a flange that abuts a corresponding flange of the lid when the compartment is closed. Such packages may have a small, localized projection on one of the flanges creating localized separation between the flanges of the base and lid so that a consumer can open the packaging by pulling the flanges apart, adjacent the localized separation.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,263, a small dimple is disclosed that facilitates separation of peel tabs created of a co-extruded Nylon/Surlyn material. A similar feature is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0062838, which discloses corresponding bumps positioned on adjacent packaging tabs such that the raised centers of the projections abut one another.
The food packages can be formed from two webs: a web of base members and a web of lid members. The two members can be joined at sealing portions of the flanges by thermobonding when the flanges are heated to a point that melts the sealing portions of the flanges together, or they may be joined by using glue or adhesive, which may also be heated. After the package has been filled with the food product, the two members aligned with one another, and the base and lid glued or bonded together, the packages are then separated from the webs, such as with a cutting tool. This separation process may result in tacking of the edges of the flanges, outside of the sealing portion of the flange that is meant to bond together. If this tacking occurs where a consumer is to initiate pulling the adjacent surfaces apart, a consumer may experience difficulty in pulling apart the flanges to separate the lid from the base to gain access to the food product in the compartment of the base.